Romero's SEASON OF THE WITCH

[The Burgomaster]

Has anyone seen the uncut version of this? I believe that it originally ran over 2 hours. I think the uncut version was released as JACK'S WIFE or something like that.

I saw a version on tape in the 1980s that ran about 90 minutes. I remember that it was painfully slow and boring. Is the full-length version any better (or is it just longer and even MORE boring)?

[Chris K.]

Romero's film was originally titled HUNGRY WIVES and ran 130 minutes. It was picked up by producer/distributor Jack H. Harris, same producer responsible for THE BLOB (1958) and EQUINOX (1969), and the film was released as JACK'S WIFE and later re-issued as SEASON OF THE WITCH, both releases cut down to 89 minutes. The Anchor Bay 1998 video release of HUNGRY WIVES is under the JACK'S WIFE moniker (however, the video cover is titled SEASON OF THE WITCH).

It is undertermined what happened to the original Romero cut, so I cannot tell you if the original cut is better or worse than the cut version. However, Romero has said that HUNGRY WIVES was his most disappointing film right next to his THERE'S ALWAYS VANILLA (1971; a.k.a. THE AFFAIR). So Romero's interest of preserving HUNGRY WIVES isn't very enthusiastic. It's possible that Jack H. Harris has the HUNGRY WIVES version, but once again Harris might not be quite interested to ressurect the film from what I have heard.

Considering that Blue Underground found the original negative of THE CRAZIES and released it on DVD (i.e., Anchor Bay's old 1998 video release was taken from poor 35mm prints), one can hope that Blue Underground will find the original cut of HUNGRY WIVES and possilbly release it on DVD. Until then, I'm in no hurry.

[Chadzilla]

Romero had expressed interest in the past about remaking it (it was the only movie he has made that he seriously thought he could improve with a second time at bat).  The movie itsn't really a horror movie, just a drama about how a woman who becomes empowered by withcraft.  Not a bad movie, but certainly Romero's weakest and not a very good one either.